Pacifica review

What Pacifica is and how it settles

Pacifica is a decentralized exchange (DEX) for perpetual futures contracts (perps). It runs on Solana. The fund security page names a Squads Protocol multisig on Solana. A multi-signature (multisig) contract needs approval from more than one signer before it moves funds.

The official documentation is on the Pacifica docs site.

Fees

The trading fees page lists Tier 1 with a maker fee of 0.015% and a taker fee of 0.040%. Tier 1 is the base tier. A maker fee applies to an order that adds liquidity.

A taker fee applies to an order that removes liquidity. At the Tier 1 taker rate, a $10,000 market order costs $4 in trading fees. The spread, slippage and funding are separate costs.

Use the fee calculator to test other order sizes. The funding rates page says that Pacifica applies funding at the end of each 1-hour interval. The funding rate has a cap of plus or minus 4% per hour. You can compare current rates on the funding rates tracker.

Audits

The audits page names BlockSec. BlockSec audited the "pacifica_fi_perp_contracts" code, and the report has the date April 24, 2025. An audit examines one version of the code at one time. It does not remove smart contract risk.

Main risks

• Depth at large sizes: in the September sweeps, the book could not fill a $1,000,000 BTC or ETH market buy within the sweep limits.
• Funding cost: the cap is plus or minus 4% per hour, so a held position can cost more than the trading fee.
• Custody model: the matching engine runs the hot wallet that pays instant withdrawals.
• Smart contract risk: audits reduce this risk, but code errors can still occur.
• Leverage risk: at high leverage, a small price move can cause liquidation.

Leverage and markets

The official market info API listed 78 markets on September 23, 2026. BTC and ETH had a max_leverage value of 50. No market in that data had a higher limit. Lower limits can apply to other markets, so check the limit for each market before you open a position.

Measured trading cost

PerpFinder stored cost sweeps on September 22 and 23, 2026. For $10,000 BTC and ETH market buys, Pacifica ranked in the middle of the measured venues. For $1,000,000 BTC and ETH market buys, the Pacifica order book could not fill the order within the sweep limits.

A trader who places large market orders must check the order book depth first. The full ranking is on the cheapest BTC perp exchange page.

Custody and exit path

The fund security page describes a hybrid model with two parts. A hot wallet that the matching engine runs pays instant withdrawals up to a programmatic limit. A cold vault is the second part.

A multi-signature smart contract secures the cold vault, and a decentralized council governs that contract. The page says that the cold vault cannot send funds to arbitrary addresses.

This model is not full self-custody, because the matching engine runs the hot wallet. Read the withdrawal rules on the fund security page before you deposit funds.

Who it may fit

Pacifica can fit a Solana user who places market orders of about $10,000. The list of 78 markets can interest a trader who wants a wide choice on one venue. A trader who places large market orders must check the order book first.

A trader who needs full self-custody must read the fund security page first. Compare Pacifica with other venues on the compare page, the perps list or the Extended review.